The FCC can’t police the underground any better than the FBI can. What stupid, misguided regulations like this only accomplish is to drive more respectable, law-abiding citizens into the underground to get those things it is reasonable for them to want. And that’s hurts everyone...
Heh. This person is what, 19 or so?
I just ask because this is the sort of silliness you hear from someone (like a Stern fan, for instance) that doesn’t really understand what he’s talking about.
Let’s take a moment to remember Bill Cheek. He went by the handle “Dr. Rigormortis.” At one time he published a monthly newsletter called “The 11 Meter Times and Journal.”
I believe he had been a (U.S.) Marine electronics muckety-muck. All his newsletters did was discuss different ways to clean up linear amplifiers and how to perform different modifications on CB radios.
So how does that relate to the FCC? Well, they’re the ones that shut him down (ultimately). You see, it is ILLEGAL to posses a modified CB radio. Illegal to use, illegal to modify, illegal to have. It is illegal to have a linear that can transmit “clean” on 11m. It is illegal to have a device that can transmit on the “funny channels.”
And, not only is it illegal to have those devices – it is illegal (their claim) to produce, distribute, or possess, material that describes or discusses such things.
Step one is when the FCC shows up at your shop (or home) with a couple of vans, a sheriff’s deputy, and a warrant. Then they proceed to seize all the items related to your illegal activities.
He fought that for the longest time then finally decided to switch to scanner modifications.
That was round two, with the FCC hounding him for the longest time over that. I recall reading that early on he published a newsletter related to unlocking blocked cell phone frequencies. I recall that there were seizures related to that.
Then he developed one of the first systems to follow trunked radio systems. I recall that there were seizures and legal action related to that.
Keep in mind that unlocking cell frequencies in certain scanners (or “opening up” bands in 2 meter+ handheld units) is a very simple modification – but it is ILLEGAL to possess that modified gear.
Ultimately he wrote a couple of books and I recall that they were mainly modifications like weird squelch-related mods or installing chips to increase the number of stored frequencies.… stuff like that. No more opening up blocked frequencies.
Towards the end he changed his approach and was operating under a “medical necessity” argument. His claim was that he had a medical necessity to investigate the properties of any radiated signal that passed through him, his home, or his property.
He had the right to investigate power level, frequency, mode of transmission, and information/data being carried on that radiated signal.
Don’t know how the story ends though. At some point he was diagnosed with lung cancer and dug in pretty quickly after his diagnosis.
So just be careful what you read on the internet because a lot of these dopes don’t have a clue. The FCC (and others) WILL, CAN, and DO, fine, seize equipment, arrest, and charge for a variety of things including possession of modified equipment. For more interesting semi-related reading on the subject, you can go here: Bill Cheek's Last Stand.
How does the example of bill cheek disprove the point of the article? Cheek is the previous generations mod chip mfg'er.
The difference is that while the feds went after people like cheek (and mod chippers under the DMCA, i.e. the distributors), the FCC wants to go after you, the end user. You are not permitted to receive unencrypted hdtv signal (according to them) into your computer, regardless of how you did it. If this is the rule, then to regulate this they have to monitor you.
And the article doesn't disagree that the FCC will try to enforce its rules, but communicates that the enforcement will involve an unacceptable intrusion into our privacy.